KARACHI, Jan 15: In a bid to contain diabetes and cater to the needs of nine million diabetics in Pakistan, the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) will soon start an online training programme designed specifically for family physicians.

This was announced by the DUHS vice-chancellor, Prof Masood Hameed Khan, here on Tuesday at a press conference organised at the inauguration of an MSc programme at the National Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Ojha campus of the varsity.

Briefing the newsmen about the MSc programme, he said that this two-year master degree course comprising four semesters, two in diabetes and two in endocrinology, was the first of its kind in Pakistan.

The vice-chancellor said that the faculty selected for the course included senior teachers of the DUHS and renowned endocrinologists and diabetologists of the country and collaboration with foreign institutions was also in progress. Candidates would also be trained at the orthopaedics, medical ICU, paediatrics and gynae and obstetrics departments of the DUHS, he said.

Prof Khan also informed the audience that a diabetic educator programme would also be started for paramedics this year.

He announced mobile van services for healthcare delivery system in the suburbs.

The vice-chancellor also spoke about the future development plans of the university including Jinnah Genome Centre and the Institute of Liver Diseases and a research diagnostic laboratory at Ojha campus.

Prof Khan said that the Dow University of Health Sciences had constituted a research advisory board where 10 candidates had been enrolled for PhD.

The director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Prof M. Zaman Shaikh, said that in 2003, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) had estimated that there were 194 million people with diabetes around the world and predicted that by 2005, it would rise to 350 million.

He said every ten seconds a person died of diabetes while two people developed diabetes. Eighty per cent of people with diabetes belonged to the middle and lower socio-income countries of the world.

It is estimated that in Pakistan 6.2 million people have diabetes, representing 8.5 per cent of the adult population in Pakistan. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the figure is expected to reach 11.6 million by 2025.

Prof Shaikh said that the mortality rate from diabetes was expected to increase by 51 per cent in Pakistan over the next 10 years.

He also stressed the need for educating the masses to eliminate wrong cultural beliefs about diabetics to effectively check the menace.

Earlier, introducing the National Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Prof Shaikh said that the institute had entered its second phase of outdoor patients where consultation was free and facility for laser therapy to prevent blindness in diabetics was also available at discounted rates.

Giving details of the newly-introduced programme, he said that the under-training postgraduates would prove to be an asset to the healthcare services in the field of diabetes and endocrinology in Pakistan.

The director of the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, Prof Zeenat Ayub, said that a modern hospital had been established at the campus for patients with tuberculosis and chest diseases.

Due to increasing environmental pollution, the number of people with chest infections was increasing rapidly, she said, adding that a masters programme would also soon be started in TB and chest diseases under the Dow University of Health Sciences.

—PPI